Second Son
by GrimMaw
Summary: Tales of what could have been if Robert's targareyn blood was a bit more assertive...
1. Chapter 1

**283 Kings Landing**

Push your grace you can do it, you are almost there, that's all robert baratheon first of his name and king of the seven kingdoms by right of conquest could hear outside the birthing chamber he kept on walking the floor ragged fully armored from practice after he was informed that his lady wife was in the process of giving birth to his second child and listening to her scream for hours, Standing in front of the chamber with a very uncomfortable expression on his face was jaime lannister the kingsguard that was assigned to the queen most of the time having the lannister just as uncomfortable as he was only raised roberts spirits a little all for it to come crashing down back with a final wail from the birthing chamber that made robert's heart stop for a moment and quiet the whole area before the loud sound of a baby's cry shattered the silence, slamming the doors open and rushing into the room with thundering footsteps he looked upon his lady wife and noticed that even the stress and pain of child bearing was not able to detract from her beauty and tired smile without further observations and giving the maester assisting the midwives with the childbirth a glancing look, robert looked at the bundle in cersei's hands and used large callous filled palms that were more fit for smashing than anything as delicate as lifting a newborn with grace unknown to him he pulled back the cover and looked at the turfs of black hair upon the child and smiled whispering to himself "its a boy", what is his name your grace he didn't have to look up to know it was his lady wife that asked him she was surprised when he smiled at her in a way he never had and more surprised at how happy she was for it ,we shall call him orys what do you think he said looking at her gently she nodded at him tiredly and spoke softly orys baratheon its a strong name worthy of our house am sure he will live up to it.


	2. chapter 2

283 Kings Landing

(Barristan Selmy POV)

The whole red keep was in shock when barely a month after his birth orys opened his eyes and they were discovered to be a very bright shade of purple only seen in those of the old blood of valyria,Barristian Selmy even more so considering the last time he saw such a pair of eyes was when he spoke to Prince Rhaegar during the battle of the trident before he was injured and the crown prince slain, standing guard outside the kings personal chamber it didn't take a maester to know that the king was angry no anger was an understatement considering the sounds coming from the chamber Robert was furious, if the sounds of a table been thrown into the wall wasn't proof enough the sight of the messenger that came bearing the news to his grace scurrying out of the room on all fours as he tried to get back to his feet in fear of the king turning the infamous baratheon temper on him was more than enough to let him know, the old knight was still immersed in his thoughts when the king marched out of the chamber in fury,with skill and grace born of long time experience guarding the royal family he slid towards the king back like a silent shadow as he accompanied the king on his march towards the queen's chamber.

Few minutes later with the king rage turning from a raging inferno to a lower burn, he observed that they had reached the queen's chamber with the presence of jaime lannister outside the doors, the king barged in ready to prehaps act like the former king aerys acted towards his lady wife but the laughter of the baby at the sight of him and the act of stretching his hands towards his father despite been held in his mother's firm grip quenched whatever vitriol he was about to spill looking at the king's face he knew that whatever rage the king had because of the child eyes had died down to nothing in the face of a child's pure joy and innocence with a last look at the king as he went to hold his child and his wife with tears in his kings eyes barristan selmy quietly shut the door to the chambers and stood outside with his fellow kingsguard with a light smile on his face.

*I know the chapters are short am still getting used to writing my apologies*


	3. chapter 3

292AC

(Cercei POV)

Writing a letter to her father the lord paramount of the west she reminisces about her life for the past ten years and the title of queen she longed for as a child as usual her thoughts carried her to her to her second son and the reason for the letter, orys was born with purple eyes and black hair and looked more like a targaryen bastard as a baby than a baratheon at first she was scared of roberts reaction because even from her chamber she could hear him rage after receiving the news of his child features hearing him stomp towards her chambers she felt cold sweat down go down her neck only for orys to break out into giggling and laughter at the sight of his father stomping into the chamber breaking robert out of the funk he was in and reminding him he was of his blood despite his features, she was initially unsure about how to feel about orys considering he was not jaime's son and she also noticed the way jaime looked at him, he to was undecided on how to think about orys too, but she knew in her heart that despite the fact that he was not jaime's son he was hers and she would treat him as one of her pride and that was all she knew, it's been nine years since then and while her marriage with robert was not all she thought it would be at first it got better due to orys presence and his giddiness in the presence of his father even crying after not seeing him everyday causing the king to visit her chambers everyday smoothening and bettering her relationship with her husband and blessing her marriage with two more children myrcella and raymont bringing her sexual relationship with Jaime to a stop with him deciding to be more focused on being a kingsguard feeling betrayed at her for having a son for robert and her deciding on focusing more on her family.

Knocks at the door to her chambers drew her thoughts away from the past and brought her attention back to the present causing her to straightening her clothes where wrinkled and making sure she looked as regal as a queen should,she invited her guest in and gave a soft smile to her guest as soon as she saw him the source of her thoughts and the reason for her letter come in, " you called mother" orys looked just like how she imagined robert would have looked at his age being almost a head taller than even his elder brother and with striking purple eyes she would have expected to see if she wed rhaegar he was a beautiful child, "you called for me mother" she beckoned him forward into a hug as she stood from her sit bypassing her writing table with grace born of nobility looking at him again she saw what she didn't notice at first glance the mud streaked boot and the tunic slightly sweaty she decided he must have been in the training yard again with barristan selmy again one of the things that differentiated him from his brother his skill with the blade hearing robert and and gossips in the red keep talk about it he learnt the blade at a prodigious pace already beating young men four to five years his senior despite just starting to train a year ago and besting his brother just 4 months after he started practice,"you missed your lessons with the maester orys" she said with the same light smile on her face as she saw him look down in embarrassment ,"but he's so boring mother and he keeps on droning about the most boring things" she sighed he hated being still for more than a few minutes at most a trait she is sure he got from his father brushing off the entire matter with the maester she brought up the topic that made her summon him " i have been thinking of you my love and your fostering and thought about bringing the idea of you fostering in the westlands with your grandfather to the king, what do you think?" with a bright smile not out of place on a child his age he hugged her agreeing instantly after hearing tales about the westerland from jaime and her growing up, despite not liking the fact that he might come in contact with tyrion she was thinking about his future and the fact that tywin might agree to make him his heir considering their shared hatred for the imp she knew he was not going to give the lordship to tyrion she released him from their hug sending him away to wash up and also going back to her letter to complete it with a smile.


	4. chapter 4

**_*NOTE*_****_282AC - Joffrey Is Born_****_283AC - Orys Is Born_****_285AC - Myrcella Raymont Are Born_****292AC(Presnt time)**

Orys was already getting tired considering he's new sparring partner hit like a bull and was two years older than him but was one of the few squires that matched him in height and from the hits he's blocked so far surpassed him in strength, but that didn't stop him from continuing the fight and angling his training sword to parry the savage downward slash of his opponent sword before taking a step back and tilting his body sideways to avoid another strike, before moving into his attackers guard and hitting his nose with the pommel of the sword and with his foot in between his opponent's legs and with a body check he downs his opponent before placing the tip of his sword in front of this throat..

"That's enough" ser barristan said "stop always using wide and heavy attacks polliver or you start getting predictable despite your strength and we will be working on your endurance more my prince you tire quickly might be because of your age so we might have to take it slower" ser Barristian continued, good naturedly complimenting and correcting them.

You've come far in just a year my prince " smiling slightly at the compliment orys had to agree while he was still young and hardly had to fight any highly trained person considering he had just started training most of his recent opponents were already older than him now and had further training.

He knew he was good even better than anyone his age had any right to be but he was also smart he had already figured out that as the second son he had to be good at something and valuable as the possibility of him being king was low (not like he fancied the title much his father complained enough about it) he would rather leave Kings Landing and make a name for himself outside his family influence either as a renowned knight, or go to the free cities he has heard so much about as a mercenary despite knowing his mother might not be amendable to the plan but he decided not to think much about it after all it was still some years in the future.

He decide to focus on the now and Congratulate polliver on the spar and giving him a hand to stand, considering the red haired squire of a was one of the few people his age group able to fight with him "you did good polliver" the boy mumbled his thanks while holding his nose that was lightly bleeding "am going to get you back for my nose you know" the boy mumble back then gave a grin that looked more like a grimace especially with the blood that had already flowed down staining his teeth red" looking to the side he saw a mousy looking messenger approaching them "the king demands your presence my prince in his solar" sighing and stretching a bit he taped polliver goodbye on his shoulder and sending the messenger back he handed his blunted training sword over to the master of arms and started taking a brisk walk to his chambers to clean up before meeting his father "and don't forget our plans for latter in the day "he heard polliver shout behind him waving back to show he had heard him he walked off towards his chamber to freshen up with ser barristan silently walking behind him with the only sign of his presence the sounds made by this armor while walking and even that was strangely muted.

Entering the red keep, he stumbled into one of the few people he hardly associated with on his walk, his golden haired brother and his kings guard behind him the red beard signifying him as ser meryn trant an easily dislikable man that he has heard was often cruel to those under him, "morning brother" he greeted joffrey despite not being close to each other, he at least made the effort to be polite, with joffrey only replying with a nod then moving off to whatever caught his interest they had never been close but orys beating him repeatedly in their spars despite joffrey being the one with a longer training had seemed to be the breaking point with them now spending days with only a few words spoken between them despite hearing about joffrey's sometimes cruel treatment of the maids and other people of lower births in the keep from myrcella,(fitting that trant was assigned to joffrey considering the shared behaviors), he had yet to turn his gaze to his younger ones unless he would be having more problems with him.

Reaching the kings solar a few minutes after refreshing and changing his clothing, he saw ser mandon moore a skilled knight with unnerving pale grey eyes that he had grown accustomed to since the pale eyed knight and ser barristan were usually the knights accompanying him when he was younger, standing beside the door and beside him on the other side of the door was ser boros blount an ugly man with short legs that was not well liked by his uncle jaime because of his skill with the sword or lack of, "am here to see my father" he spoke facing ser moore," he asked of me", without a word to the young prince only a slight nod to him and ser barristan, the pale eyed knight knocked briefly on the chamber doors before opening it for them a few seconds later.

Orys entered the chamber and waited for his father to address him, the king was a big man even while sitting with massive hands that held the missive he was reading, with his father occupied for the moment he decided to observe the solar considering it was one of the few places in the red keep he could not enter easily and without permission. The solar was big and well furnished with soft rugs and the baratheon tapestry hanging from the walls, "My boy! I Heard you were training with the squires how is your training going " his father boomed out loud with a grin after registering his presence and dropping the letter, smiling lightly at his father he sat opposite him and told him about the last spar and his victory over the older boy.

After congratulating him his father got to the reason for summoning him "i have been thinking of your fostering, considered even sending you to the vale like i was but with jon arryn here i dont trust anyone else there all that much, or the north with my friend Eddard Stark but your mother has convinced me on another option, your grandfather in the westerlands has also asked to foster you but its your choice, so what do you think?", without much thought he agreed with his mother's idea after all they've discussed it already with a strange look on his father's face he agreed, sending him off and telling him to prepare since he would be leaving in a fortnight.

With great joy he departed from his father's solar, thinking about who he should break the news too first before deciding on his younger siblings as they should be taking lessons from the Archmaester together.

Knocking on the maester chambers before entering he gave the archmaester a short greeting before getting hugged by raymont and myrcella after asking for permission and receiving a yes he carted them off to the garden outside to break the news to them "i would be leaving for my fostering in a two weeks time" he told them knowing they will miss him dearly as he was closer to them the most "you can't go what about us" raymont golden haired boy and younger twin shouted back at him with tears in his eyes, bending down a bit to hug them he promised to write letters, then myrcella whispered "why dont we come with you" with a sigh he explained to them that when they were older they were going to go on their own fosterings and he will also make sure to visit them.

After calming them and leaving them with ser Arys Oakheart he goes to find his and mother after a few minutes without success finding her he asks a guard for her location finding out he just missed her as she was seen heading to the garden a few minutes ago,he decides to return to the garden.

After telling his mother the good news he remembers he planned to explore the city with polliver latter in the day but after the day he's had so far he decides to leave it for another day and goes his chamber to rest,before drifting off to sleep he thinks about the adventures and fun to be had before settling down to do his duty towards his family and he drifts off to sleep with a smile on his face...


	5. chapter 5

292

(Tywin's PoV)

The Lord of casterly rock was not an easily impressed man but even he had to raise a delicate eyebrow at his first sighting of the second prince.

He had heard the tales of course, of a young boy with a prodgenous skill with the blade some say he inherited said skill from his uncle, one of the youngest kingsguard some say it is obviously from his baratheon and targaryen blood which had produced children of the same caliber.

Tywin knew at his first sight of the boy that whatever some may say as well as some rumors he had heard, the boy was of baratheon blood with the broad shoulders that were barely filling out and hair as black as a raven feathers and while the boy was still growing he reminded tywin of a young steffon baratheon without the lilac eyes.

Despite his inner thoughts tywin made sure to keep a well crafted straight face as he welcomed the young prince with his appointed kingsguard ser barristian selmy who also dismounted from his horse to stand at his wards back with all the grace of a knight twenty years younger and taking note of the red haired boy that accompanied the prince after all he had a reputation to maintain and while the boy certainly looked impressive for a boy of ten, the boy had not shown any major difference from jaime at the same age and while tywin loved jaime he was not blind to his flaws and lack of any real ambition, he would make sure the boy doesn't grow up to be another glorified bodyguard to a king if he had anything to say about it.

(Orys PoV)

Orys was quite fascinated, while he had heard a lot about casterly rock from his mother and uncle the tales didn't quite do justice to castle or compare it to the real thing looking at the quite intimidating castle he was riding up to his thoughts were on how true the rumors of how deep into the mountain the castle went.

His first look at tywin lannister,he observed his grandfather demeanor was as solid as the mountain castle he lorded over with thinning blond hair green eyes flecked with gold. dismounting from his colt as he was still too young to ride a horse, "the whole westerlands has been expecting you my prince after the news came from the capital that you would be fostered here"the lord of casterly rock spoke with a clear voice .

Tilting his head low enough to show respect to his grandfather but not low enough to shame a royal prince as the difference had been hammered into his head continuously by his mother's hand maidens who were in charge of his courtly lessons when his mother was unavailable , he replied "I am happy to be here as well my lord" with an approving nod lord tywin led him pass the onlookers and the small folks that had been gathered, watching and whispering as their lord talked to the prince leading him into the castle surrounded by guards wearing both baratheon yellow and black and lannister red and also one legendary kingsguard whose very presence causes more mummering and surprise in the small folk.

296AC

(Orys Pov)

Twyin lannister was a harsh taskmaster, hard to please and far too easy to displease and while he never said as much to anyone that failed him or his expectations of them, he had a look in his eyes that said it all and drove the person at the end of said look to strive to do better.

And after having being on the opposite end of that look more than once he had strove to excel in everything his grandfather taught him or laid before him while he didn't pick up stewardship and other lordly pursuits quite as quickly as he did with the blade he made enough effort through sheer bloody willpower to be deemed "adequate enough" considering he was not set to inherit the iron throne, not that he cared one whit for the iron monstrosity considering how many times he had seen his father cut himself on the throne.

Still he's four years fostering in the heart of the westerlands had not been useless, far from it, it had been more productive while recently polliver has been winning the spars between them more often than not polliver did not also have to contend with learning about how to rule and take care of castles and keep in line bannerman by sheer presence.

Walking towards the courtyard for an early morning training session with ser barristan who he started squiring for a year back, he arrived after making a short stop at the tyrion's room to drop a book on corlys velaryon adventures and travels he had borrowed from the dwarf despite his mother's warning about the dwarf he could not quite keep away from the dwarf considering he was well while not exactly the most friendly and always looking for ways to "loosen him up either with drinks or women" he was smart and jovial enough that he reminded him of a dwarf version of his father without the dwarf smarts and lacking his father's strength .

He had been reading about the explorer the night before who has been his latest object of fascination ever since the topic of traveling was brought up while discussing with his uncle tyrion over supper a few months back.

He fell in love with the idea of exploring planetos, from the free cities to as far as ancient valyria and maybe even farther but that was still some years away.

He had to focus on at least breaking pollivers winning streak over him in the last 4 spars they've had. Entering the training yard he realised he was not the first person to grace it with his presence the first was as usual the red haired giant who at just sixteen years had hit a recent absurd growth phase and was already 6'3ft tall and was said by the castle maester and tyrion to grow as huge as if not gregor clegane then as huge as sandor the hound.

Compared to his own meager height of 5"11 which was praised to be already quite big for a boy his age he looked around after noting ser barristan absence he decided to start preparing himself for the fight of the day while polliver continued going through his drills with his heavy training armour, heavy war hammer and shield, tying his growing long (despite ser barristan advice to cut it as it might put him at a disadvantage if his helmet was to fall off in a real fight) hair black as night with steaks of silver that had started growing with the black into a topknot, he put on his training vest and armour, then lifted a heavily blunted tourney bastard sword from the weapon rack.

Going through a few sword drills and weighting the weapon of his choice in his hands he signalled polliver drawing the boy attention "your grace are you ready to give a fine showing today as well" the red haired boy said with a wide smile on his face, he could do no more than shrug with a slight grin at the elder boys jest.

They stood before each other orys holding his bastard sword in a two handed grip and a free stance while polliver raised his shield high with the war hammer close in a solid stace giving themselves enough space, Orys attacked first as giving the red-haired giant the initiative was bound to make the fight a sadly short one, he moved towards his opponent with all the speed of an unarmored person despite his light armour aiming a heavy swing at pollivers right side which the red haired boy blocked with a flex of his shield,the fight went on like that for a minute with probing strikes from orys blocked by pollivers defencive shield work, not to be dismayed by the red haired boy's defence pry kept on his attack while also dodging wide swings from his opponents hammer with skill born of sparring with people with longer reach.

Seeing a loophole in his opponents defence he moved to his opponents right forcing polliver to change his stance and take a step back to face him or leave his side open to an attack at the sides, before lashing out with his hammer, despite the strength used to swing the hammer orys was able to parry the attack with his two handed grip on the sword forcing polliver weapon away then slicicing at his neck with strength and speed born of heavy training polliver was able to force his shield into a position that would absolve the blow, before bullrushing the prince with his shield leading the charge.

Surprised with the fact that polliver reflexes were fast enough to block and counter charge him orys was caught off balance as he had over committed to the attack,leaving him open to be slammed by the bigger squire and with no time to brace himself for the charge he was shoved off his feet and thrown backwards, disoriented and muscle burning with the effort to move it took all his training with ser barristan to force him to roll to his right abandoning his weapon on the floor where it fell with him, luckily also avoiding the follow up hammer slam that would have ended the fight right there if he was still lying on the floor, he forced himself on his hands and knees before lashing at the heel of his opponent with a kick that was done more with reflex than any prior training causing his opponent to stumble and also fall to a knee with a heavy grunt, without allowing his opponent a chance to recover he quickly stood and ripped the shield out of his opponent left forearm with more fury than grace then slammed the flat side of the shield against the side of his opponents helmet putting him in a daze before kicking his chest forcing polliver unto his back, before quickly straddling him with a knee to the right forearm while seating on his chest stopping him from utilizing the war hammer and holding the rounded shield edges to polliver's throat, finally wining the fight he let himself also fall over in exhaustion

Resting on the floor beside each other Orys was shocked to hear clapping and cheering, forcing himself to sit up despite his burning muscles he was shocked to see the whole training yard surrounded with people that must have observed the spar ranging from maids, cleaners even tyrion with a sly smile that let orys know he had a hand in whatever this was to lesser nobles with respect in their eyes and nods to him by some even lord tywin stood at the very edge before giving him a solemn nod and walking off orys was still surprised till ser barristan walked out of the crowd with a light smile on his weathered face giving a hand to both polliver and orys helping them stand before bowing low happy fourteenth name day my prince, eyes wide wide with sudden realization that he had forgotten his own name day he blushed slightly realising that tyrion must have planned it with barristian and polliver with the rest of the castle being aware then grinning widely he pulled polliver and barristan selmy into hug before dragging them towards where the dwarf was standing before the dwarf could make an escape polliver dragged him into the group hug with his longer reach, despite the dwarfs obvious wish to escape the group cause laughter from everyone.

Hours later Orys put on a black doublet with stags and lions embroidered on his sleeves a servant came into his room to inform him of the feast that had began in his honour, with a heavy sigh at the politics and nobles he would have to contend with, he left the room heading towards the great hall with as always the solemn kingsguard walking behind him and a new addition, polliver his new sworn sword after he had been knighted earlier in the morning by ser barristan himself after a short tourney that had been organized in secrets and had been held a few hours after the spar where polliver had made a good showing off himself ,he grinned to himself as he realized polliver would be forced to go through it as well the red haired giant never one to like the intrigues of lords..


End file.
